Climate change is the most widespread & complex problem humanity has ever faced! There is no time to waste and we need to turn green talk into profound green action. This is the intention of the GREEN TIMES.

The human costs of foreign plunder

The effects that foreign trawlers are having in African waters are not simply confined to our fisheries. They are having strong ripple effects in local communities as well.

Foreign trawlers are emptying West Africa’s oceans and exporting their catch to supermarkets in the EU and Russia. The effects this is having on fisheries is well documented, and it’s not good news.

However we hear far less about the impact that foreign fishing is having on local communities in countries like Senegal and Mauritania.

Small-scale fishermen were once able to easily catch enough to feed their families and sell extra at local markets. These days they are forced to extremes to feed their families, often risking their lives to make the smallest of catches.

Overfishing is not simply an issue for fisheries and the environment, it’s a human rights and social justice issue too.

help stop the plunder

The Senegalese people recently elected their fourth president, so this is the perfect opportunity to ask the new leader to implement policies for sustainable management of the West African fisheries.

Millions of Senegalese people depend on these fish stocks every day for jobs and food, but this resource is threatened by foreign vessels whose capacity and fishing technologies are constantly increasing.

Watch the videos in this article, witness the injustice being inflicted on local people by foreign fishing fleets, and then join Greenpeace’s call for fairer fishing! Tell the new Senegalese leader to make the management of our fisheries a priority.